Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

Quinn keeps lists of everything — the days she's ugly cried, "Things That I Would Never Admit Out Loud," and every boy she'd like to kiss. Writing her fears down on paper means she never has to face them in real life. That is, until her journal goes missing.

An anonymous account posts one of her lists on Instagram for her whole school to see, then blackmails her into completing seven of her most dreaded to-dos — or the rest of her journal goes public. Not knowing who to trust, Quinn teams up with Carter Bennett, the last person known to have had her journal, to track down the blackmailer before time runs out. Along the way, facing everything she's spent years avoiding, Quinn finds the honesty, and the courage, to actually live — and to fall for Carter in the process.

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry is a heartfelt contemporary YA romance about a Black teenager navigating a mostly white Austin, Texas high school, blending humor, tension, and genuine emotional stakes.